Critical communication pedagogy and service learning in a mixed-method communication research course

ABSTRACT

Course: Mixed-Method Communication Research Methods

Objective: The purpose of this semester-long activity is to provide students with opportunities to cultivate mixed-method communication research skills through a social justice-informed service-learning format. Completing this course, students will be able to: recognize the unique strengths of quantitative and qualitative research methods; locate, evaluate, and utilize scholarly literature for a literature review; conduct an original research project using quantitative and qualitative research methods to gather and analyze data; and raise self and community awareness about a social issue through collaboration with a community organization.     

Efficacy of the TELL language and literacy curriculum for preschoolers with developmental speech and/or language impairment

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the efficacy of a new preschool oral language and early literacy curriculum package (Teaching Early Literacy and Language [TELL]) for children with developmental speech and/or language impairment (DSLI) either as a primary (e.g., specific to speech and/or language) or secondary impairment (e.g., developmental delay that includes DSLI). Participants included 118 children (30 females, 88 males, M age = 53.58 months) with DLSI and their 29 preschool teachers. The design was a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with assignment to experimental versus contrast conditions at the classroom level. Teachers in TELL classes received formal training, in-class support, and mentoring to implement the curriculum. Dependent measures for the children included scores on the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Preschool 2nd edition (CELF-P2), the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening for Preschool (PALS-PreK), the Renfrew Bus Story (BUS), and a receptive and expressive vocabulary measure developed for this investigation (VOCAB). Results indicated that when compared to the contrast group, children in the TELL condition demonstrated greater gains on the phonological awareness subtest of the CELF-P2, the sentence length score of the BUS, the letter sounds, beginning sound awareness, and rhyme awareness subtests of the PALS-PreK, and VOCAB. Results suggest that the TELL curriculum package has promise for promoting gains in early literacy and oral language skills in preschool children with DLSI.     

Implementing English Further/Higher Education Partnerships: the Street Level Perspective

This paper reports on research into the operation of English further/higher education, with a focus on the role of partnerships in supporting the massification of higher education. The research draws on the bottom‐up policy implementation tradition to provide analysis of the effects on partnerships of a quasi‐marketised environment. The rationale and effects of market orientated policy are discussed with reference to empirical data from college staff and partnership managers. In employing the concept of the ‘street‐level bureaucrat’ as an agent of policy implementation, this research contributes to the interpretation of policy and partnership which has previously been unexplored within the further/higher education context. Conclusions are drawn with implications for the development of college higher education delivered in partnership.     

Positional group significantly influences the offensive and defensive skill involvements of junior representative rugby league players during match play

This study examined the skill involvements of three positional groups across a junior representative rugby league season. Data were collected from 45 rugby league players (mean ± SD; age = 16.5 ± 1.0 years) currently participating in the Harold Matthews and SG Ball Cup. Players were subdivided into hit-up forwards, adjustables and outside backs. The frequency (n · min^?1) of offensive, defensive and overall involvements was coded for each group using a notation system and a practical coach skill analysis tool. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a significant effect of playing position on skill involvements (F = 9.06; P < 0.001; ES = 0.41). Hit-up forwards performed a significantly greater frequency of offensive (0.31 ± 0.10), defensive (0.42 ± 0.15) and overall involvements (0.74 ± 0.19) when compared to adjustables (0.20 ± 0.08, 0.28 ± 0.08 and 0.52 ± 0.15, respectively) and outside backs (0.20 ± 0.12, 0.11 ± 0.07 and ± 0.31 ± 0.17, respectively). Further, adjustables performed a significantly greater number of defensive (0.28 ± 0.08) and overall involvements (0.52 ± 0.15) when compared to outside backs (0.11 ± 0.07 and 0.31 ± 0.17, respectively). The findings of this study suggest that it is important to consider a junior player’s positional group when analysing their skill involvements. Information gained from this study could assist in the design of specific training methodologies for junior rugby league players in high-level talent development programmes.     

The Effectiveness of a Brief Mindfulness-Based Intervention for College Freshmen Who Have Aged out of Foster Care

This study investigated the effects of a brief meditation intervention on perceived stress, mindfulness, and sleep quality for college freshmen who have aged out of foster care. Thirty-six youth who had aged out of foster care and enrolled at a large midwestern 4-year university (n?=?16 experimental group, n?=?20 control group) participated in a study in which they were assessed three times on the dependent variables. Students also participated in a focus group after the intervention ended. Four sessions of the brief mindfulness intervention resulted in significant short-term reductions in stress levels and increases in sleep quality. Finding effective personal interventions to increase chances for college success for students with histories in foster care can also offer potential insight toward the development of educational models and resources for other vulnerable college student populations.     

Longitudinal patterns of emerging literacy in beginning deaf and hearing readers

The emerging reading and spelling abilities of 24 deaf and 23 hearing beginning readers were followed over 2 years. The deaf children varied in their language backgrounds and preferred mode of communication. All children were given a range of literacy, cognitive and language-based tasks every 12 months. Deaf and hearing children made similar progress in literacy in the beginning stages of reading development and then their trajectories began to diverge. The longitudinal correlates of beginning reading in the deaf children were earlier vocabulary, letter-sound knowledge, and speechreading. Earlier phonological awareness was not a longitudinal correlate of reading ability once earlier reading levels were controlled. Only letter name knowledge was longitudinally related to spelling ability. Speechreading was also a strong longitudinal correlate of reading and spelling in the hearing children. The findings suggested that deaf and hearing children utilize slightly different reading strategies over the first 2 years of schooling.     

How New Caledonian crows solve novel foraging problems and what it means for cumulative culture

New Caledonian crows make and use tools, and tool types vary over geographic landscapes. Social learning may explain the variation in tool design, but it is unknown to what degree social learning accounts for the maintenance of these designs. Indeed, little is known about the mechanisms these crows use to obtain information from others, despite the question’s importance in understanding whether tool behavior is transmitted via social, genetic, or environmental means. For social transmission to account for tool-type variation, copying must utilize a mechanism that is action specific (e.g., pushing left vs. right) as well as context specific (e.g., pushing a particular object vs. any object). To determine whether crows can copy a demonstrator’s actions as well as the contexts in which they occur, we conducted a diffusion experiment using a novel foraging task. We used a nontool task to eliminate any confounds introduced by individual differences in their prior tool experience. Two groups had demonstrators (trained in isolation on different options of a four-option task, including a two-action option) and one group did not. We found that crows socially learn about context: After observers see a demonstrator interact with the task, they are more likely to interact with the same parts of the task. In contrast, observers did not copy the demonstrator’s specific actions. Our results suggest it is unlikely that observing tool-making behavior transmits tool types. We suggest it is possible that tool types are transmitted when crows copy the physical form of the tools they encounter.